


Dead Tired

by plsnskanks (orphan_account)



Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: also, continuation of an old work, im not putting a ship tag on this as the ship ends, nano 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-17 05:18:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16510082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/plsnskanks
Summary: Cont of https://archiveofourown.org/works/11606070Tom gets lightly murdered so now he has to share his body with Eduardo's demon ex. Spooky cross country road trip ensues.





	1. Chapter 1

“Edison twins,” Ell’s voice comes on the other end, brisk and punctual. “What’s your trouble?”

Well my boyfriend’s dad recently murdered me and now I am on a miniscule time table to get a permanent body for a crazy she-devil…. Is what the truth tastes like on Tom’s tongue and he is tempted for the outpouring of honesty but he holds it back.

Wait. Boyfriend. 

Ex, ex-boyfriend . Did he need to make that official? Or was that implied with the “hey your dad nuzzled out my jugular and as it turns out, I was not cool with that”. Tom glances at Matt as the line picks up. He stares back, eyes looking huge and sad. Tom looks away. Guilt. Guilt after all this? Are you kidding?

“Hey Ell,” Tom starts out hoarsely, before clearing his throat and recovering himself. “It’s Tom.”

“Tom? Everything alright? You know this line is for emergencies only,” Ell says a soft note of reproach in her voice. He knows if she was talking to a spook he would have heard about three separate flavors of colorful insult by now.

“Y’see I do have an issue, I was bit,” Tom said, looking over at Tori and the rest and hesitating a moment. 

“Go on,” Tori mouths impatiently.

“Bit,” concern is creeping into her voice, “Do you know what by?”

Tori motions impatiently and Tom can feel himself growing uneasy beneath the roomful of gazes on him. He can still feel Matt looking at him wide-eyed and pale faced, paler than usual. His skin has this sickly green tint to it Tom hasn’t really seen before and it makes him want to edge away.

“No, no, I don’t know what it was, I need your help figuring it out.”

“Oh, uhm, alright then, I can go get Edd and we can come meet your or you can come to us.”

“I’ll come there,” Tom said. Tori has a pissed expression on her face and now Tord is looking uneasy. “I am at the Thorgunn’s house right now, if I don’t make it over there in an hour or so, start looking there,” Tom said. Tori’s mouth shuts and draws into a tight, thin line.

“Alright, you sure you don’t want us to come down there? I know those two and I wouldn’t trust my turned back to them for even a minute, y’hear?” Ell says. Something in her tone has gone hard now. Anger. Tom recognizes.

“I’m alright.”

“Alright, be safe.”

Tom ends the call and tosses the phone back.

“Why didn’t you lie?” Tord asked him, voice coloring with disbelief.

“I don’t owe it to vouch for anyone after tonight and I want those two to have a clear idea of what is going on. Once we get there, I am going to tell them everything. If I don’t get there, they’ll know and they’ll know it was because of you.”

“Nice to know being a deceitful little turncoat runs in the family,” Tori snorts derisively. Tom opts not to rise to the bait.

“I need someone to take me, I can walk but I doubt I would make it there in an hour.”

Matilda steps forward. “We’ll take you Tom, don’t worry. I can help explain.”

“Woah, woah, if Matilda’s going, I am going to make sure she doesn’t get herself staked,” Tori said.

“Thanks for your concern,” Matilda says shortly, she looks to Matt and touches him gently on the shoulder, leaning in close and murmuring something into his ear. Matt seems to come out of his stupor and looks at her, flashes her a weak smile and then lets it drop as a look of pain creeps across his expression as he glances Tom’s way.

“Fine, fine, we’re all going then,” Tord throws up his hands in exasperation, “Can we just go before I have two little Van Helsings on my doorstep. Ell has tried to put a crossbow bolt in me before and I do not want her to try again. I have not had my tetanus shot in years.”

Tori flicks her hair off over her shoulder, “I guess, Matilda let’s get in your dingy truck.”

“It isn’t dingy,” Matilda sniffs but she gets her keys out of her pocket and hits the unlock. They all pile in, Matt and Matilda up front, Tom sandwiched between the Thorgunns on a seat that is covered in his own blood. This night sure has gone swell.

They make it there a quarter shy of the hour time limit. Tom finds the others falling behind him as he goes to set off up the path until it is just him alone, the church visible in the distance.

“You guys coming?” He calls in annoyance, over his shoulder.

“No way worm meat, you can be the one to find out where it is,” Tori calls in response.

Tom wants to ask what she is referring to but decides he has had enough of the cryptic madlibs style conversation tonight and just shrugs and walks forward. He notices it a split second before he steps over it. His foot drags through a pale white line that seems innocuous enough.

And then a freezing jolt of cold runs down his body, followed almost immediately by a stinging wave of red-hot pain that has him dropping to the ground writhing.

He blacks out seeing flashes of something rotting, moldering, two dark pits and then eyes, a mouth with too many teeth, jagged and broken and needle sharp, a voice hissing, “What did you do?”

“I don’t know,” he whimpers back to it unsure if he is speaking aloud or in his head. The mouth is too close to him, all he can do is stare into the jagged mouth as fetid words take shape and slide toward him like maggots.

“Hallowed ground is now forbidden to you, you are of tainted skin,” the voice hisses.

“Tom,” Matt’s voice calls and moments later he finds himself being hauled backwards by the hem of his pants. The pain resides seconds later as does the voice with it.

“What’s wrong with his skin?” Matilda asks worriedly.

“What is that on his head,” Tord asks, hint of disgust in his voice. Tom covers his head with his hands, feeling something raised and hard there and curls in on himself. He feels something else curl around him. His mouth feels like it is full of something and his breath comes out in pants.

“Hey, who’s out there?” Comes a voice. Seconds later the crunching of feet along dirt path is heard and there they are, Edd and Ell, lanterns lighting their stern faces with flickering menace.

“Thorgunns and the bloodsuckers. To what do we owe the displeasure,” Ell says, regarding them coolly.

“Missed you too, Ell,” Tori says in a gratingly high falsetto.

“What is that?” Edd said. Tom feels a foot nudge him. He takes his hands off his head and looks up. Ell takes a moment to look at his face before recognition flashes across it followed quickly by rage.

“So what happened in your neck of the woods this evening?” Edd said patiently as Ell unstrapped something on her waist. Ah. Knife. Everyone drew back at the sight of it.

“This isn’t for any of you. Yet,” Ell grits. She stoops down to Tom’s side and touches his face gently. Her hands are warm, that was one of the things about the Eddison twins. Spare the werewolves, no one was as consistently warm as they were. Tom remembered back when he used to go to church, back when their parents were still alive, every so often he would hold hands with Ell and her hands would always be calloused but warm, during the sign of peace, her hug stayed with him long after she had let go.

She looked at him now, face soft despite the knife in her hands, and he was surprised to see her eyes looking misty. He doesn’t think he had ever seen her cry before, save maybe his parent’s funeral.

“I was supposed to look after you and Tam. Take extra care of them, they don’t have anybody else, that’s what my dad said,” Ell was saying softly, so soft only Tom could hear. He was about to say something to comfort her when Ell pressed the knife to his skin, derailing his train of thought completely as his heartbeat spiked at the cool presence.

Ell drew the knife across Tom’s hand in a smooth motion. He winced and tried to pull it back, but she held it firm. He noticed for the first time his hand was clawed and had a faint purple tint to it, with the occasional scale here and there. It looked like lizard skin to be honest. 

“Sorry, sorry, just wanted to-,” Ell’s eyes widened a bit at the swell of black oozing from the cut. 

The Eddisons started at the hand for a moment then looked to the Thorgunns. Even Tori’s usual overconfidence faltered under the look Ell gave her.

“I’m going to purge your swamp and your entire bloodline for this you low lyin-.”

“Wait, wait,” Matilda cut in, standing in front of the Thorgunns.

“It’s on us, ours. Our bad.”

“How in the world are we supposed to believe that? Since when do suckers summon demons?” Ell spat, jamming a finger toward Tori, who looked at the digit like she’d prefer the knife. “Don’t you try to make things easier on them, they’ve had something coming a long time.”

“My dad killed Tom,” Matt blurts suddenly, staring stunned at his own admission.

“And as it stands he only has two weeks to live,” Matilda said. “So we can work out the fallout of this and the implications with your set of law and all that jurisdictional-,” Matilda falters and just waves her hand.

“But the demon we summoned said we had to go find someone called Eduardo and get him to help us, and then Tom would get set full back to normal.”

“Eduardo,” Edd said, though it came out as more of a groan.

“So you do know him?” Matilda said hopefully.

“He’s blood,” Ell said shortly. “Barely.”

“He is a pain in the ass is what he is,” Edd said, crossing his arms. “Also lives a fair shot across the country.

“Can you help us find him?”

“We can’t, but we know people who can. Or Tord does.”

Tord looked startled, “Me?”

“Yes you. Remember that haunting that happened because you two idiots disturbed a body in your swamp?”

“The exorcism last spring?” Tord said still looking confused.

“Which you still owe us for,” Ell said looking at him irritably. “Yes that one. That’s Jon. Now provided you listened to us and put his bones back instead of say, turning them to bone meal, we can contact him and he might be able to help.”

“I put bones back,” Tord said, a little too nonchalantly.

“All of them?” Ell said, eyes narrowing.

“Most of them?”

“What is it with you two and not following instructions to the letter,” Edd groaned.

“He seemed like a pushover,” Tord shrugged. 

“What he was, was one of the most well-traveled and well-versed paranormal experts of our time and Eduardo’s best friend. Someone who might be able to help us provided he isn’t extremely pissed off at being down a femur or whatever you chose to grind down to nothing,” Ell said in exasperation.

“I think I still remember where we buried his skull,” Tori said thoughtfully, “If we absolutely have to get it-.”

“No, no, no,” Ell said, “We are going to do this the right way. We can hold a séance and call him up that way, no more interfering with his grave. That’s the ghost equivalent to walking into someone’s bedroom and shaking them out of bed.”

“If Jon fails, we can try Mark, but he is werewolf and I haven’t seen him around this area for at least three full moons,” Edd said contemplatively. “And he’s annoying.”

“Oh and Tom has a map,” Tori said casually.

“A map? To Eduardo?” Ell said, puzzled.

“Go on Tom, show them,” Tori smirked. Tom shot her a glare and pulled off his shirt, turning around to show Ell.

“Oh god is this Laurel?” Ell groaned.

“Hey how did you know?” Tord said in surprise.

“Because the whole family knows. Online dating, no, just summon a demon who has been doing your dark bidding for the last couple months and make some blood sacrifices for her. Eduardo really has a way with the ladies you see,” Edd said sarcastically.

“What about Tamara,” Ell says suddenly. “Has anyone told her yet?”

Tom finds himself involuntarily clutching handfuls of dirt. 

“She doesn’t know, please, don’t tell her,” Tom says softly.

“Tom we can’t just leave her hanging for however long it is going to take to go sort this out. And just in case, if things, you know….”

Ell trails off. He knows what she means. Don’t you want to give her the chance to say goodbye? Don’t you want to give her a hug, to tell her. What do you even tell someone? Hey I know things have been rough since our parents died and now I might not make it but stick it through. Hang in there. 

Tamara’s tear stained face at their parent’s funeral flashes in Tom’s mind’s eye and he is recoiling.

Tom comes to face to face with the reality that he is a coward, and nowhere is that shown more plainly than the expression on his face.

Ell looks at him, face soft as ever.

“Tom you have to tell her, I can help you explain.”

“She barely knows about any of this stuff, I always tried to keep her out of it. Ell it’s going to kill her, she is going to be sick with worry. Or worse she’ll want to go,” Tom said as the horrific thought struck him. Tamara would one hundred percent put her neck on the line without a second thought if she knew the journey was risky.

“Tom at least give her the choice,” Ell implored. It was the quiet force in her voice that broke him.

“Alright,” Tom says woodenly.

“Can he fix his… you know, first. I think it would come as less of a shock if he could,” Edd said, gesturing at the general entity that was Tom currently.

Ell looked at him over her shoulder and then back at Tom.

“Ah, uh, Edd has a point, do you know how to change back?”

Tom looked at his clawed hands again and felt his forehead. Sure enough there was something hard and pointed there.

“Focus”. A voice in his head was whispering. “Focus and pull your energy inwards.” He could feel his skin prickling again, borderline painfully, and just sat back and focused on creating an imaginary ball of energy at his center. After a moment he opened his eyes again.

“Whatever you did it worked,” Edd said gruffly. He stepped outside the line and walked around till he was beside Tom and outstretched a hand to him. Tom took it and was standing to his feet. His pants were stretched and Torn and covered in mud from his writhing, and he was sure there was still quite a bit of blood on them.

“Yeah no tail, good job,” Tord said from behind him.

Tom felt like he was losing it, “I had a tail?”

“Tail, horns, the works,” Tori said in her perpetually bored tone. “I suspect it will get harder and harder for you to change fully back to human the closer we get to the deadline. So more of a reason to get a move on and get this over with.”

“I’ll take him to Tamara and get her up to speed. Edd you take those two, and make sure they get in touch with Jon in a polite and amicable way.” Ell finished and gave the two a stern look. “If you mess up our lead and things go awry, Jon won’t be the only one buried in the swamp.”

“Alright, alright, sheriff we get it, enough with the threats,” Tori said, tone dismissive but she was careful to stay out of Ell’s reach as she moved to go.

“You take our car,” Ell said turning to Edd. “Matilda, can you give us a lift?” Ell said, looking towards her and Matt. Matilda smiled.

“Sure thing Ell.”

With that the four of them set off. Tom was still getting his footing as he walked. He kept getting overcome by waves of dizziness and flashes of whatever had been talking to him.

“Sorry,” Ell said. “Should have warned you about the line. Didn’t think you had turned that quick, figured whatever it was, we would have time to take care of it.”

“It’s alright, I wasn’t in a position to say,” Tom said, a bit of a wheeze to his voice as he spoke.

Ell turned to look at Matilda, “Now what are you and your kin doing being mixed up with the likes Thorgunns? I know you two normally stay within the line of acceptable behavior.”

Matilda sighed, “Matt let out the family secret to Tom and that by our clan’s standards is a turn or kill situation. Requires bloodletting either way. I’m sure if they found out what we were trying to do, they’d kill Tom on the spot.” 

“And you don’t have any say, what with you being in line to take over next?” Ell said looking at Matilda incredulously.

“Not until the end of this season. I need a full year of being fully turned to even attempt to take my right,” Matilda said. “And even if I was head, I don’t know if my clan would listen to me about this. This is how we keep things secret and it is an effective deterrent.”

Ell’s eyes narrowed, “It’s cruel is what it is and your brother had no business getting Tom wrapped up in any of this. What were you thinking?”

The question was addressed to Matt who looked down at his palms in response and didn’t say a thing.

“That’s right, you weren’t. And someone else had to pay for it,” Ell finished. Matilda looked as if she wanted to defend her brother but bit her tongue.

They reached the car and Matilda moved to open the door but Ell put her hand on the door stopping her and staring down Matilda coldly and calmly.

“Your clan works one way, mine works another. If Tom dies, our kind is going to need reparations in the form of blood.”

“Ell,” Matilda started.

“This may be all trivial to your kind, just another bloodbag to dispose of,” Ell started. Matilda looked stricken.

“We don’t-,” Matilda.

“You may not but your clan clearly does and if you are keeping the old ways so will we,” Ell cut her off. “I’ll call my parents down into this if need be and I know none of you spooks want them in these parts again.”

Ell leaves her hand off the door and opens the back passenger door, helping Tom in and then herself. Tom watched Ell fumble around looking for her belt. He realized that he could see better than her in the dark by quite a stretch. He reached over and pulled out her seatbelt from where it was wedge on the other side of her and snapped it into place.

Ell looked at him and smiled warmly and uttered a soft, “Thank you.”

Matilda started the car and in the full dark her headlights cut through and illuminated the way as they sped out of the woods and towards town. Matilda drove much closer to the speed limit this time, now that Tom’s life wasn’t in as much mortal danger as it had been a few hours ago.

The car was quiet, no one had a desire for conversation which was fine by Tom. He was exhausted and didn’t want to think and certainly didn’t want to talk with either of the vampires sitting up front about the night’s events. He had had enough adrenaline coursing through his veins for a lifetime and what had been the span of twelve hours had felt like a month. Tom found himself passing out, once again on the seat he had been bleeding out on just earlier a wave of black enveloping him without further thought.

_____

 

“Smells like litter in here Edd, you let your grimy cat shit everywhere?” Tord said as Edd pulled up in his idling car to and he opened the door to get in.

“Is that your cat in the front seat?” Tori asked in disbelief as she caught sight of a cat carrier delicately strapped into the passenger seat, with a small grey face peeping out of it, smiling serenely. Or whatever you wanted to call it. Ringo was a happy looking sort of cat and Tori’s ire was less directed at her than it was at her owner.

“She isn’t grimy,” Edd said poking a finger through the bars to let Ringo nuzzle it. “Ringo comes with us on quite a few calls, she’s a good cat. Seems to know when things are going to get hairy. Been useful on a few of your calls.”

“And she just has to be in the front seat, not the trunk?” Tori said in an annoyed tone.

“I ought to put you two in the trunk and forget about you, would halve my workload straight away,” Edd said as he pulled away, car bumping up and down on the old dirt path.

“So this Eduardo, you think he would help us?” Tord asked.

“You two? No way in hell. Ell and I? Maybe. Odds are better with Jon’s help. Providing he is even willing after you two’s shenanigans. Speaking of which, care to explain what you know?”

Tord recounts in details the events of the night, emphasizing how they had little to no time and that is how they wound up in the condition they were in.

Edd sighs as he pulls into their driveway and walks around the side to pull out Ringo’s carrier with one hand and a black bag Tori and Tord knew all too well as usually having nothing beneficial to them inside it. Salt, holy water, a book of counter spells.

The three of them make their way to the house, Edd standing aside to let Tori enter first. She walks in and flicks on the light, revealing to Edd the candles littered everywhere 

“Alright now, do you perhaps have anything of Jon’s we can use to get in contact with him?” Edd asks even though it is clear between the three of them he knows the answer.

Tori sighs, “Get it.” She says jerking her thumb at Tord. Tord gets to his feet grumbling and goes into their kitchen. A few clinks and some shuffling is heard before Tord returns with a glass jar in hand. In it is a sandy looking substance.

Edd looked at it with mild revulsion.

“So that’s Jon in there, eh?”

“Mostly? Might be a couple other ones in there too?” Tord said shaking the jar around and squinting at it. “Hard to say.”

“How many times have I told you two to keep yourselves clear of the graveyards. Ell and I have been-.”  
“Spare us the lecture, Edd,” Tori said with disinterest. “We haven’t been in any graveyards, whatever is in there was dug up on our ground and is thus our property.”

“Not how it works,” Edd sighed. “But so long as I don’t see any freshly turned graves around here, whatever. Now you two pick a candle out of the lot and let’s sit down and do this the proper way.”

Tori grabs a matchbook and strikes one and picks up a rather fat candle laying on its side and lights it. She moves over toward Edd and sets it down and the three of them are circling it. The jar is set in the center of them as well, candle light flickering off its surface.

“We don’t need to hold hands, do we?” Tord snorts.

“Not on your life, Thorgunn,” Edd says, but there is a bit of a sly grin on his face. “I don’t want to know where those hands have been.”

“Enough you two, let’s just get through this,” Tori says, silencing them. The three of them look at each other and then each close their eyes.

“Who is going to do the incantation?” Tori asks after a moment of silence. Three sets of eyes open again.

“I thought you or Tord were going to do it?” Edd said. 

“Yeah right, if he does it, Jon won’t even come, and I am the one who exorcised him with your guys’ instructions so I doubt he likes me,” Tori said.

“Alright, I’ll do it. Close your eyes,” Edd says.

With a hint of mild exasperation in his voice Edd says “I call upon Jon to commune with us.” 

“Oh. It’s you guys again,” A soft voice says. Edd opens his eyes to see Jon hovering a few feet above the candle looking moderately displeased, soft blue glow emanating from his opaque form.

“We need a bit of help,” Edd starts.

“Normally I am charitable to those who do not disturb my grave,” Jon says looking pointedly at the twins. 

“It is not to assist them. Well, in a roundabout way they are getting something,” Edd said looking back at them with mild reproach.

“Come on the afterlife has got to be a bit boring if you still chose to haunt this side of it,” Tori says impatiently.

Edd shoots her a warning look as Jon’s face sours further. “We want to get in touch with someone you knew while you were alive, Eduardo.”

Jon looks surprised a moment before his eyes narrow suspiciously, “And what do you want with him?”

“He’s my cousin,” Edd said impatiently. “And recently a demon with unfinished business with him, and if we help her, she’ll spare a friend of ours.”

“This isn’t to do with that Laurel thing again, is it?” Jon said looking amused.

“How’d you know?” Tord said in open mouthed astonishment. 

“We undead talk, it’s about all we have to do,” Jon said looking around the room in mild interest. His eyes settled on the jar beneath him for a bit. He hovered for a moment, contemplating things before mumbling something softly and nodding his head.

“Sure, I can help you, one condition though,” Jon said looking at the three of them with a small smile on his lips.

Tord crossed his fingers hoping he wasn’t going to ask for his bones back.

“Dig up my skull and take me with you, I haven’t seen him in years and I would much rather have my resting place be around someone who knows how to respect the dead,” Jon said, still smiling benignly though something about it was a bit unsettling.

“Fair enough,” Edd said. 

“Not fair enough, seriously?” Tori groaned. “If I knew we were going to have to dig him up I wouldn’t have buried him where I did.”

“Where?” Edd said, knowing already he wasn’t going to like the answer.

Tori sighed, “Well, I didn’t really bury him… I knew Tord would just go dig him up again if I put him back where we found him, so I threw him in the heart of the swamp, and now your saying we have to go dredge him up.”

“I can help you find me,” Jon said with a shrug.

Tori rolls her eyes and sighs, “Tord go get your swim shorts on, you are going in this time,” Tori said. Tord looks like he is about to protest but thinks better of it seeing the dark look on Tori’s face.

A few moments later the four of them are in a boat with a lantern dangling off the front end and the soft glow of Jon emanating almost as much light as the lantern did. The swamp was inundated with a thick and pervasive fog that made it hard to see where they were going until they were basically already upon an obstacle. The hull of their boat received quite a few more scratches on various rocks and branches as a result.

The floor of their boat already had a puddles in it, whether that was from a leak somewhere or the mist condensing in the boat, he wasn’t sure, and wasn’t really sure he wanted to know either.

Edd had opted to leave Ringo back in the house as he could see the value in taking her and wouldn’t have dreamed of subjecting her to the chilly swamp water even if by accident.

After a few moments of quiet stroking Jon’s aura seemed to glow noticeably brighter. He smiled excitedly and said, “Ah, it seems we are growing closer.”

Tori shivered and through gritted teeth said, “What direction?”

Jon pointed and she started to paddle the boat with more fervor, taking note of how Jon’s glow increased until it was like standing under the light of a full moon.

“Look!” Tord said, peering down into the dark water, “is that it?”

Distantly in the murky depths, a small bluish white thing, not unlike Jon in coloring, was radiating light down in the depths. It looked to be somewhere between fifteen to twenty feet down. The excitement seemed to die on Tord’s face as he realized he was going to be the one diving down to get it.

“Aww no,” he said with a shaky tremor to his voice.

“Come on then, you can do it. You’ll be alright,” Edd said patting him on the back.

“I really can’t,” Tord said looking down. “It’s deep and there’s nasty shit down there. Wouldn’t believe the things I pull up on my line.” Tord was positively shaking at the prospect of going down there and even Jon seemed to be having pity on him with the way he looked at Tord.

Tori moved over to Edd and shooed him aside as she put a hand on her twin’s shoulder. She looked at him steadily.

“Three tries Tord. Three earnest tries and if you can’t do it, I will. Remember, this is about way more than us.”

And then she removed her hand and moved back. Tord closed his eyes for a long moment and drew in shaky breath after shaky breath until his breathing was relatively calm and then he pulled in a final breath, much deeper than the others, and dove in.

The swamp was so cold, it was like a gut punch and shock fizzled on every nerve ending , but Tord kept moving and swung his arms behind him in a way that made him feel powerful. He pulled stroke after stroke, getting nearer and nearer to the blue light and as he approached he could hear a faint whispering.

“That’s it, Tord was it? Just a few more strokes now, just hook your fingers in my eye sockets and you can push off against the ground and be up to the surface in no time,” Jon’s voice encouraged.

Tord pulled again. Closer and closer his arm outstretched until his fingers just brushed the tip of something slimy.

From the perspective of the boat Tord had disappeared shortly after ten feet and what was happening underwater was indiscernible until suddenly the blue light underneath winked out.

“He’s got me,” Jon smiled. A few seconds later Tord’s head broke the surface, gasping for air. With one hand he raised a moldy looking skull in triumph as he swam with one arm towards the boat and threw the skull in and then with the help of Tori and Edd, was lifted back in the boat.

Edd helped Tori paddle on the way back as Tord sat in the back, teeth chattering, Jon’s skull in his hands as Jon explained to him how the various hairline fractures, cavities and other assorted mishaps to his bone structure had occurred while he was alive. 

Tord was largely unresponsive until they docked the boat at which point he leapt up and sprung from the boat, dashing inside, leaving Jon and Jon’s skull on the boat seat. Edd and Tori made it in a few minutes later to find discarded wet clothes in the doorway and Tord wrapped tightly in a blanket, still shaking as he lay on the couch.

“You’re decent under that, right?” Tori asked, eyeing her brother suspiciously. Tord unwrapped the blanket to reveal comic book pattered pajamas.

“Alright, well that is one item down,” Tori said exhaustedly. Edd had stooped down to open Ringo’s cage and straightened up with her in his arms. 

“Mind if I feed her, I have some canned tuna in the trunk?” Edd said as Ringo gave a soft meow.

Tori waved him off, “Be my guest, our house attracts strays like mad so be sure to close the door unless you want her getting in a scrap.”

A while later Tord was asleep and Tori had come back with two bags full of what Edd could only assume were clothes and supplies. 

“I assume we’ll get the call to go whenever they straighten things out with Tamara,” Tori said as she sat on one of the armchairs apart from the couch. Edd was sitting in one, Ringo curled in his lap asleep.

“Ah, how do you expect it will go over with Tamara?” Edd asked as he stroked Ringo who started to purr softly in response.

Tori closed her eyes and smiled bitterly, “Not well.”

\----

 

“Something’s wrong,” A voice says whisper soft. 

Piercing pain is driven through his side and he find himself trying to limp forward but his eyes are stinging as something is running down into them and when he wipes at it with his hand it comes away red.

“Wrong,” it whispers again, this time the whisper taking on a tinny echo that repeats quietly.

Tom looks over his shoulder, half expecting to see the face again, but behind him is nothing but dark and trees and ahead of him is what looks like a shore with water reflecting the moon. Tom gets an uneasy jolt within him, like he knows if he stands still to long something bad will happen, for sure he knows, something awful will happen. So he runs, rocks and gravel slipping under his feet, the shore edge drawing nearer and nearer and the light of the moon growing brighter as he approaches.

He looks down to see pale arms with unnervingly dark veins and gnarled digits that look unnatural and disgusting. His arms are bruised and cut and a few of the cuts are still leaking. At last he reaches the shore edge and he looks down at it to see in the light of the moon, his own reflection.

Sure enough it is the face he saw before. But this time when he raises his hands to touch it, his hands do the same, and then he looks up because he realizes he is not alone.

Not alone at all. A girl is hunched over a few feet away, sobbing and wearing a familiar looking uniform in the moonlight and he realizes he knows who it is and where this is. And he takes a step towards her, the gravel crunches underfoot and her head snaps up and she looks at him, tear stained face slowly melding into a look of sheer horror.

“Tamara,” he hears his own voice rasp, even though it sounds nothing like he remembers. “Tamara,” he calls again. She stands and turns and runs and with her all the light seems to follow and he is left in the dark alone knowing what is coming is just around the corner and that nothing can save him now. And-.

“What’s wrong with him? Why is his body like that? What did you do?”

Tom’s eyes open to find himself staring into the angry tear stained face of his sister and for a moment he thinks he is still in the dream.

“We were trying to keep him alive,” Matilda urged softly. “Tamara please, just sit down and we will explain.”

“Hey,” a soft hand comes up to touch his cheek, “Are you alright?”

“Tam I’m so sorry,” Tom finds himself saying softly and his voice breaks towards the end. Tamara shakes her head vigorously and smiles tightly as she blinks back tears.

“Just explain what happened,” She says and it is less to Tom and more a request of the room at large.


	2. Chapter 2

“Err, it is a bit of a long story,” Matilda starts.

Tamara looks between the four of them and her eyes settle on Matt who has been the quietest of the group, not saying a word since they arrived. 

“You, what happened?” she says, wiping the tear tracks off her cheeks as Matt flinches from the question. Tamara was always rather quick to recover her composure and Tom could understand how that could come off as unnerving to others.

“Oh go ahead tell more humans, that’s how all this started isn’t it?” Ell asked sarcastically. “Matt and Matilda are vampires and their family is in the business of murdering any humans that find out their little trade secret.”

Tamara looked at them without much surprise. “So. You two are part of the old folk legends then are you?”

“Something like that,” Ell said looking at Tamara without a hint of levity. It was pretty well to say Ell’s sour mood was set in stone for tonight.

“Your grandma used to tell us stories about spooks, how much of that was true?” Tamara asked Ell.

Ell shrugged, “Grandma used to keep the peace up until the day she died, a lot of the stories she told were first hand experiences.”

“So what happened to my brother and how do I help him?” Tamara said, determined look settling across her face. Tom’s stomach dropped. He knew the look all to well.

“He’s cohabiting with a demon at the moment,” Ell said, “and we are on a strict time table to get the demon a new body before Tom’s gets worn out.”

“So how do we get him a body? We don’t have to…” Tamara said, not bothering to finish the sentence. Her eyes darted towards Matt and Matilda who both started.

“No, nothing illegal. Well, maybe trespassing if we have to go talk to Eduardo but…. At the moment we just need to get moving.”

“Tamara,” Matilda cut in, “We don’t kill people.”

“Alright then, let’s go then,” Tamara said, ignoring Matilda’s comment.

“No,” Tom said, head considerably clearer now that he had the time to differentiate nightmare from reality. “Tamara there is no need for you to come, we have enough people coming along already.”

“Tom’s not wrong in wanting you to stay home Tamara,” Ell said. “It’s probably going to be a dangerous trip, even for those of us with less than human qualities.”

Tamara stared down Ell coolly, “Surely you can recognize the importance of accompanying my last direct blood relative.”

“I can, and I am not forbidding you to go. That’s on you. I just want you to take into account the risks associated. People well acquainted with spooks aren’t always good at helping those who aren’t look before they leap.” Ell’s eyed Matt as she spoke.

Tamara looked at Tom, eyes lidded, and just looked at him for a long time, “Tom I know you worry for my personal safety, but you are not in the position to try and make any decisions for me. I am coming. We can even take the camper.”

“Camper?” asked Ell, looking between the two.

“It’s been in the back lot for ages and it was ancient when our dad even bought it so I don’t know if it will even start but, yeah we have a camper.”

Ell raised her eyebrows and her and Edd followed after Tamara as she stood to show them it. Tom was left alone with Matilda and Matt who gazed at him quietly for a while before Matilda nudged Matt and then got up and left.

“Sorry,” Matt said quietly.

“Yeah, me too,” Tom said. Matt’s face had looked miserable all evening but it started to crumple under Tom’s words. And as angry and paranoid and horrified as he had been all afternoon, it gave him no relish to see Matt with a quivering lip looking down at his hands on the verge of tears. He could be vindictive and petty and mean, and maybe the thought of seeing Tord cry amused him. But not Matt, never Matt.

“Matt I can’t tell you it’s going to be okay because I don’t know if it is, and you can cry all you want but that doesn’t mean the outcome is going to be any different,” Tom said softly. “I can’t help you anymore, I need you to help me.”

Matt nodded his head harshly. A tear dripped off his face down into his hands. His shoulders were shaking lightly. Tom went to put a hand on them when Matt’s face suddenly jerked up and Tom was surprised to see his eyes still brimming with tears but his jaw set firmly as he stared at Tom with determination.

“I’m going to set this right,” Matt said, hands white knuckled where they rested on his knees. “I couldn’t protect you with my dad but I can do better this time.”

Tom smiles and he wants to believe him but he in earnest, cannot.

“Matt at the rate you are going, you might not outlive me long,” He says and there Matt is, recoiling with eyes full of still more tears at his words but Tom is too tired and too sore and too scared to have anything left within him to comfort Matt.

He is grasping for something more to say when a knock sounds on the door and a flood of relief greets him at the distraction. He opens it to find Tord standing and grinning ear to ear with a skull in his hands, a blue haze Tom realizes is a person hanging behind him. Tom sighs internally at the sight. He is not surprised at this point, no, years of Tord’s antics had accustomed Tom to weird stuff showing up on his doorstep. 

“Err, should I let you in with that?” he says looking down at the skull which also smiled up at him in a macabre sort of way. 

“Oh this, it’s just Jon, he’s coming with us. Had to dig him out of the lake but now we are all packed and ready when you guys are.” The pale haze regroups into a concrete figure that waves to Tom in greeting. Tom doesn’t wave back.

“Why is your hair wet?”

“Story for later,” Tord said, face darkening a moment before dissipating back to smiles again.

Tom looked over his shoulder at the room empty of people save Matt still sitting on the ground by himself looking desolate, “I think everyone is out back trying to get the camper to work.”

“Oh, mechanical problems? I know a guy that can fix that,” Tord said with a small grin.

“It’s ancient, I don’t even know what parts of it are good still,” Tom said tiredly. The thing had been moldering away in their backyard for years but as one of the last tokens of their parents and one that couldn’t quite be easily packed up and put away in a storage unit a couple miles from here, they had left it. Tamara had even been out there on occasion to read books in quiet.

Tord waved him off, “No trust me, this guy’s got it.”

Tom shrugged, “If you say so.”

“Come on, I think he’s still up around this time, I’ll go let the guys out back know real quick. Haven’t seen Paul in ages,” Tord said, eager expression on his face. He shoved the moldering skull into Tom’s hands before Tom could have a say about it and dashed out back.

“Oh my god,” Tom said as he quickly looked around the room for a place to set down the skull and at the sight of Matt’s miserable expression a wave of exasperation welled within Tom and Matt found his lap full of skull a moment later.

“You two keep each other company for a bit,” Tom said. He had to get out of the room, being alone with Matt was suffocating him. His thoughts were scrambled enough without the cloud of gloom emanating from Matt.

“Matilda, go with them and make sure they don’t dawdle,” Ell was saying sternly as she held a flashlight for Edd who was rifling around under the hood of the camper. Tamara was still sitting in the front seat looking bored.

Tord rolled his eyes, “Whatever, we’re leaving now, so if your coming get on with it.”

With that the three of them were trailing back into the house where Matt was, for the first time that night, looking jovial as he was apparently deep in conversation with Jon. Matilda gave him as small wave which he returned and then they were out and in the car.

“Oh good you left skullboy in the house, he was driving me nuts,” Tori said, raising her face off the steering wheel as they opened their doors.

“He isn’t that bad,” Tord said.

“He is indeed that bad and his skull smells something fierce,” Tori said bluntly. “Where are we going?”

“Paul.”

“Oh, that weirdo,” Tori said as she twisted the key to start the engine. “What for?”

“Camper out back that he can probably fix.”

As they pulled away Matilda turned to Tom.

“Hey Tom, I know I never it said it with all the chaos of tonight, but I am so sorry about how things turned out,” Matilda said, looking at him with wide, open eyes.

There was something about her that always had set Tom a little more on edge than it had ever occurred for him to be around Matt. Matt was pure butter, soft all the way through. Tom had never gotten that impression with Matilda though her appearance would lend otherwise, and the deceptiveness had always unnerved him.

“Don’t worry about it, on our way to fix it, right?” Tom said he focused his gaze away from Matilda and instead opted to look at his own dim reflection in the window.

“Well thing is,” Matilda said nervously. “Even after we get you a new body, we will still have problems.”

Tom appreciated the assuredness of Matilda in their success but eyed her warily, “What kind of problems?”

“Well, you are still supposed to be dead even if you aren’t,” Matilda said. “So we might have to hide you until I can try my hand at taking the lead of my clan and seeing if I can’t sway things in your favor.”

“And if you can’t?” Tom said, gazing at Matilda stonily.

Matilda looked at him unflinchingly, “I’ll opt to take charge of turning you as clan lead.”

“I’ll wear silver for the occasion then,” Tom said icily. 

“So will Ell, cool it you two, we’re here,” Tori said. It was, surprisingly her only comment throughout the course of the conversation and she turned around to look at them as she said it. She caught Tom’s eye and a hint of amusement ghosted her lips as she regarded him.

They walk in to the junkyard. It was a peculiar sort of place. Unlike normal junkyards it was predominantly composed of metal, sorted into piles of similar looking pieces or if the pieces were not similar, the metal type was. There was also a few piles of tires and some other odds and ends, but primarily it was metal, gleaming and winking in the moonlight. There was something mystical about it, it reminded one of a pirates cove filled with hidden treasure, teeming with silver colored objects that one was better off not touching.

It was serene with the air not unlike that of a library.

“Are you sure we are allowed to be here?” Matilda said, nervous tint to her voice.

Tord shrugged, “Paul and I are old buddies, I’ve let him scum around our swamp a few times for scrap, he likes me.”

“You always did make friends with the weird ones,” Tom snorted.

“Birds of a feather,” Matilda began and promptly leapt out of her skin as one of the piles came alive.

“Tord,” comes a rough voice. A shaggy man seems to materialize from the midst of the piles of metal. His clothes look as ragtag as the assorted collection around them.

“Paul, how are you old friend?” Tord said grinning broadly at the man. 

“Pickings are good of late,” Paul said, pulling out a cigarette and snapping his finger. A small flame appeared at the tip of his thumb and he lit the cigarette and put it into his mouth. He shook his finger and the flame disappeared. “What are you doing in my neck of the woods?”

“Ah well you see, a friend of mine is in some pretty dire straits and we need to make a long distance haul to get him somewhere on a tight timeline and the guys’ sister has this old camper out back and I was wondering if you could help us get it up and running again? We’ve only got till the new moon to get this under control,” Tord finished with a wince as he looked at Paul hopefully.

“Mmm, you’re saying he’s got all of two weeks to get this ordeal sorted?” Paul says in a low voice, looking at Tord. 

Tord nods harshly, “Yeah, that’s how it is, unfortunately.”

“Pay me back later, I’ll make sure you stay good for it,” Paul says.

Tord’s eyes widen, “Really?”

“We can’t ask that of you,” Matilda cuts in, distressed look on her face.

“We certainly can,” Tori cuts her off quickly and shooting her a sharp glare. “Now is not the time for manners princess.”

“All the original parts there?

Tord looked to Tom who shrugged, “As far as I know they are, it just hasn’t been maintained or driven in years.”

“Sounds like an easy fix,” Paul said. “Should I tail you?” 

Tord flashed him a thumbs up. A few minutes later they were piled back in the car and before Tord had even started the engine Paul had reappeared on an idling motorcycle.

“Agreeable sort isn’t he?” Tom said as they were back on the road. A lot of mileage done tonight.

“Not really, he just is quick to decide whether or not he will help you or not. Pretty to the point. Think half the appeal is that he just likes new puzzles and the other half is that I do him favors now and then and he doesn’t like owing people.”

“So what is he?” Matilda asked, peering out the back window at Paul.

“Same as me, just specialized in alchemy,” Tord said. “Don’t think there is a guy in the region that can to metal alchemy the way he can. The stuff he makes is awesome. Swords out of soda cans, stuff like that. Real good at the fine stuff too, though he says he doesn’t have the patience for it, I’ve seen him make flowers out of sheet metal.”

“Can’t believe I’ve never heard about him,” Matilda said turning back around and resting on the seat.

Tord shrugged, “Some of spooks don’t like the human watch organizations keeping tabs on them. You know the stories, vigilante witch trials, wrongful killings, mark downs to clear turf. Paul doesn’t like trouble.”

“Hell knows why he hangs out with you then,” Tori snarked.

“I’ve kept low profile,” Tord said defensively

“My ass you have,” Tori said, outright laughing at that. “Half the reason I have a bad rap with those two is because of me tailing you to clean up your messes.”

“The other half is the fact you jinx every odd person that so much as looks at you the wrong way,” Tord said in rebuttal.

“He has a point,” Matilda said. “You do jinx people quite a lot.”

Tori rolled her eyes, “I jinx people who trespass on our property, steal from me, and lie to me. It’s not that hard not to do either of those things.”

“Also anyone you’ve had a mild disagreement with, anyone that is going after someone you like, that one mail man,” Tord started.

Tori cut him off, “Occasional exceptions, and like you’re so good yourself.”

Tori was pulling up in the driveway and when Tori and Tord got out they were still bickering. 

“Or that time you turned your sock drawer into snakes by accident,” Tori was saying as Paul pulled up beside them.

“Oh good,” Tord said breaking away from his sister who tossed her hair and disappeared into the house. Tord waited a moment to give her distance and then motioned for them to follow.

Paul hefted a bag off his motorcycle as he followed them, slinging it over his shoulder. It tinkled lightly as he did.

“Oh, hey Paul,” Ell said as she glanced up at the returned group. Edd started and looked over his shoulder. 

“Hey pal, how’s it going?”

Paul nodded. “Didn’t expect to see you here. Can’t say I am surprised.”

“Yeah, that’s us. We’re helping out with this whole disaster,” Edd said, pulling out oil speckled hands and wiping his forehead with one of them, leaving a grease smear on his forehead.

“You guys know each other?” Tord said, looking between them curiously. “How’d that happen?”

“Supplies,” Ell said. Though what kind she wasn’t saying and they all knew better than to ask.

“Never knew you were a spook though,” Edd said.

Paul shrugged, “I like to keep a low profile and keep off the rosters, no offense intended.”

Ell shrugged, “Far as I see it, as long as we don’t see a reason to put you on a roster, you aren’t on one.”

“ Appreciate it, I don’t do well with curious trespassers,” Paul said lowly. “Now is someone in there right now?”

“Tam,” Ell called.

Tam materialized from within the dark of the camper and looked through the windshield.

“Sup.”

“Move on out of there, Paul’s going to fix it up.”

“Sorry, thing might superheat a bit depending on repair types and I want to be safe,” Paul said.

Tamara opened the driver door and hopped down, shutting it and coming up alongside them.

Paul sidled up to the open hood and placing his hands in the hood and closed his eyes for a moment. A couple things within the camper popped and groaned. A particularly nasty dent their father had put in the front bumper the first time he had tried to park it suddenly smoothed out with a small crinkling sound.

“That’s about all I can fix without new material, somethings are rusted out a bit and we’ll need a bit of metal to replace it,” Paul said as he opened his bag and pulled out hunks of metal. Before their eyes the metal glowed white hot and drips of it touched Paul’s skin and absorbed into it.

When the ball was gone Paul turned back around and set to work. This time the noises were different, a weird scraping noise persisted and flakes of rust seemed to shake off the camper and after superheating and absorbing a few more hunks of metal, Paul turned back around and clapped his hands.

“Fraid I can’t do that much about the whole paint job, but that stuff’s just cosmetic. Also took some metal from other places, you’d normally have a bit more metal in, nothing serious just try not to get into an accident or anything. I’ll fix it up when you guys get back, but as for now, I’m near out of metal and I assume you’re tight on time. This should work.”

“No way,” Tamara said incredulously.

Paul looked at her unblinking, “Try it out and see. I do good work. Things should be relatively safe in there again, careful not to touch anything metal though.”

Tamara opened the door and climbed in. She put the key in the ignition and turned, and where as an hour or two ago she had only gotten a vague clunking sound, now the engine purred to life.

“No way,” Tamara said again, and this time is was less disbelief and more awe that colored her tone.

The headlights cast a glow over everyone and Tord walked over to high five Paul who tapped his hand lightly, smiling almost embarrassedly at Tord’s praises.

“Damn, do you do maintenance, because I’ve got this real pain,” Edd began. Ell shot him a look. Edd paused a moment.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to overstep,” Edd said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

“Not at all, if you don’t mind, I’ll come to you, give me your number and we can work out a time,” Paul said. 

With that exchange finished, Tamara came out and thanked Paul and without further word he left. Matt had ambled out after he left, Jon’s skull still in his hand.

“Who was that just now?” he said.

“Alchemist,” Ell said, “fixed up the camper and now we are all set to go. Only thing left to do is sort out who goes where.”

“Well,” Matilda said, “Matt and I need relatively little room to sleep and can do so in the truck and leave you all to the camper. As much as I trust Paul’s handiwork, it is probably good to have a backup vehicle besides. We can’t afford to get stalled.”

“Everyone packed?”

Ell nodded seriously, “Alright, I’ll give everyone here a final disclaimer. Eduardo lives out in the boonies and there’s all sorts of weird stuff where he is. He’s in a sort of hot spot for spooks. Some of the places we may end up could be dangerous, uncomfortable, filled with all sorts of creeps and weirdos. Anyone that wants to wuss out is welcome to it.”

No one spoke. 

“Alright then, good, as long as we are square on that” Ell said with a little nod. “Now who wants the first driving shift?”

As it turns out, no one does, so it winds up being Ell to take the wheel first. Matilda offers to take over when it gets too late out, her and Matt preferring to keep nocturnal hours. Ell nods and gives her a curt thanks. 

Tamara rides shotgun and her and Ell sit in silence except for the sound of the radio. After a bit of bickering over who would sleep where, everyone in the back seemed to have found a corner to sleep in and all was quiet as the night wore on. Casual talk radio drifts over to the “Moonlight Hours”, where a variety of crackpots and genuine spook sightings, and sometimes a spook themselves calling in to take the piss out of the humans, come on and talk about the weird things that they’ve experienced.

“I always wondered if there was some merit to any of these stories,” Tamara said, after a particularly long-winded rant by an elderly women claiming her neighborhood cats had started stalking her in synchronized shifts.

Ell snorted without taking her eyes off the road. Right now the road was windy as they had to get out of the mountains, but in a few hours they would be on a wide, dead stretch of road, the limbo that was the vast swell of land between them and Eduardo. Despite the circumstances, Tamara felt a bit giddy. It was something about being all packed in a small camper with people she knew and when they weren’t driving her up a wall, cared a great deal for.

“These guys calling in here are up to their eyes in all the loose screws that fell out of their head. Most of them anyhow. But the stuff my grandma used to tell us when you slept over, mystery spots where things just work different, wendigo, ghosts, familiars, the works, those,” Ell closed her eyes a moment before opening them. “Those are real.”

“Huh,” Tamara said, leaning back in her seat as Ell took a particularly sharp turn around a mountain curve. She liked the feel of inertia as they rounded the bend and she could feel the giddiness inside her grow.

It had been a long time since she felt this weightless.

“You handled things well, not just the Tom thing, but well, everything else,” Ell commented.

“I am afraid the worst shocks of my life are far behind me,” Tamara said. “Besides, bad news you can actually do something about is better than, well….”

Finality.

It goes unspoken but sits heavy in the air nonetheless.

“Could I talk to them? And them to me? Like that thing Tord brought with them,” Tamara asks, and despite her not wanting it to come out that way, her voice comes out timid and soft.

Ell’s face softens and her mouth turns downward in a small grimace.

“Tam, I get the urge, I really do. Jon probably knew what he was doing when he chose to stick around, and as for the rest, I won’t lie, you can, but I wouldn’t. Things like that are best left alone and even if you think it would ease those kind of wounds, it won’t. I’ve been on enough calls for that sort of thing to know it doesn’t work out.”

“Thanks Ell,” Tamara says after a long pause, in which snippets of the woman on the radio describing how a particular grey tuxedo was always at her window filled the silence.

“So what are your calls like?”

“Our region isn’t so bad. I hear of some guys out in the desert that just never get a good call. Lot of weird things going out there that just no one would ever dream of. Sometimes it isn’t even supernatural. Just someone doing weird stuff because he feels like it or because he’s gotten into something he shouldn’t.  
But our area’s alright. Mostly just petty stuff. Land feuds, tainting the soil, giving people moles or warts or whatever, things being moved where they shouldn’t be. No one is bargaining with things they shouldn’t which keeps things easier. We also stick closer out here, which helps. I can call on other guys if something seems out of depth.”

“You think Eduardo can actually do anything?”

“He can, and he will, as far as I’m concerned. I would never do it, but if he doesn’t play along, I’ll tell him I’ll call up Gran and let her know what he’s been doing since the time she hasn’t been around to straighten him out.”

“She really leave that much of an impression?”

Ell chuckled, “Y’see, you were always good around her so she was sweet as apple pie to you, but Eduardo was always a trouble maker and used his abilities for less amicable purposes. Tried to jinx Grandma all of once and she had him hiccupping up soap bubbles for a week.”

“So you aren’t magical even though you two are family?”

“Travels through maternal side, my dad didn’t pass anything on but my aunt, Eduardo’s mom, did. Was jealous of him growing up but now I think I’m pretty alright with the way things turned out.”

“Oh?”

“Was never born special, everything I have in my toolbelt was earned and learned, and I think that’s helped me.”

“Well I guess that is a nice way to think of it,” Tamara said, and the two of them lapsed into silence and just listened to the radio. Somewhere between the end of the stalker cats story and the beginning of a story about a woman who turned her crystal ball into a bowling ball and proceeded to win a tournament with it without ever having bowled before, Tamara passed out.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry for the abrupt ending but this was getting kind of long....


End file.
